AboutIntroductionLEUNG Mee-pingThe Hong Kong traditional handicraft of Cheung Chau Piu Sik Parade – its continuation on Cheung Chau Island, cultural references to both mainland Chinese and Hong Kong history, and the participants’ integration into neighbourhood communities has far-reaching cultural implications for the preservation of Hong Kong’s intangible cultural heritage (ICH). As a cultural artefact, the Hong Kong Piu Sik Parade differs from its mainland counterparts; its relatively isolated nature takes advantage of the Cheung Chau topography, and the development of its indigenous culture is by no means anachronistic. The very distinctive geographical structure of the Cheung Chau island creates a local folk tradition that is unlike any other places, and which has allowed it to develop over decades with rarely any outside influence. At the same time, the relatively isolated development of the Cheung Chau Piu Sik Parade has made it an indispensable and defining element of an interactive albeit singular community network. In this sense, to study the Cheung Chau Piu Sik Parade is to study the ways in which traditional art forms not only reinforce but also comment upon, community relationships. Such a study constitutes an alternative to comparable studies utilizing provinces, districts or towns as their geographical backdrop, but also, and more importantly, it allows us to see clearly the important social effects of cultural traditions. In 2011, Cheung Chau Bun Festival became one of the "Folk Customs" categories of the national intangible heritage with the Cheung Chau Piu Sik Parade is one of the items included in Cheung Chau Bun Festival. I thus gain the motive to undertake research on the Cheung Chau Piu Sik Parade: what is its aesthetic structure and content? What are its causes, processes and non-physical forms? The process of its lCH inscription? Is it possible to conserve the intangible heritage form of Hong Kong's traditional Piu Sik Parade? If so, how can it be? It extends the long-term conservation and the development of intangible cultural heritage in a variety of questions. This study of Cheung Chau Piu Sik uses a combination of traditional craft and anthropological field observation research methods and hopes to make an in-depth and comprehensive aesthetic analysis of Cheung Chau Piu Sik. At the same time, contemporary visual arts often appropriate traditional arts and craft to express concerns about the corresponding culture. Consequently, the goal of this research is to become a brand-new educational platform with regard to the inheritance of the non-material traditional craft of Cheung Chau Piu Sik, bring it into the context of contemporary visual art creation, and promote the research and education of Cheung Chau Piu Sik more widely, in order to foster the goal of teaching that both teacher and student will benefit. Acknowledgements
Chairman YUNG Chi-ming, Cheung Chau Bun Festival Committee and Cheung Chau Rural Committee |